Three in a row.. all good RP opportunities that I blew by losing my internet connection... at least I was able to patch the two on the station but being offline for a recruit med exam is kinda hard to forgive.
This sucks.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Personal status update...
As many of my colleagues in medical division were aware I've been without a RL job since the end of Jan. Happy to report that I now have a new position but I've just over a week to organize a temporary apartment 600 miles away and get moved to take this new one. This means that for a few days, whilst I may be visible inworld I will not have a great deal of time to work on division projects, being frequently AFK other than when attending to urgent issues in my SL business. I'm not taking a formal LOA and will still participate when I've time but please dont be offended if you IM me and I dont answer.
Dr Da5id Weatherwax
Dr Da5id Weatherwax
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Brief recap of the 2009-05-30 Staff Meeting
Our 2009-05-30 Staff Meeting was very lightly attended. Doctors Kasshiki, Forwzy and myself discussed this and our diagnosis was a severe case of Spring Fever (an old malaise, known in to the ancient Greeks as Εαρινό Πυρετός and hence to the Romans as febris ver). Our prognosis is of a swift recovery :-)
Our next biweekly Staff Meeting will be on Saturday, 2009-06-13 at 4:30pm SLT at the McCoy - Troi Medical Center. With the biannual GFC Ball taking place a couple of weeks after that, we will reschedule the 2009-06-27 meeting to another date.
Hope to see all at the meeting on the 13th and also at one of the Balls.
- Dr. Juran, CMO
Our next biweekly Staff Meeting will be on Saturday, 2009-06-13 at 4:30pm SLT at the McCoy - Troi Medical Center. With the biannual GFC Ball taking place a couple of weeks after that, we will reschedule the 2009-06-27 meeting to another date.
Hope to see all at the meeting on the 13th and also at one of the Balls.
- Dr. Juran, CMO
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Highlights from 05-16-2009 Bi-Weekly Staff Meeting
Here are the highlights from our bi-weekly staff meeting: - Welcomed LT snapper Desade, Ens Nogad Ay, and Crewman 2nd Class Echos Lockjaw to the medical team. LT Desade and Ens Ay are involved in medical technology research and will be working periodically with Dr. Weatherwax.
- We will be replacing the current Medical Handbook with an updated one this week. The new handbook will incorporate the new departments and roles. An announcement will be sent out when it is posted. Web address is http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d87mg5z_16pk4c75gh.
- For a short time, uniforms from the new Star Trek movie are permissible in GFC to celebrate the film's release.
- Regarding appropriate uniforms, First Contact - Nemesis, are Medical's (and GFC's) on-duty standard. In addition, we are one of the first groups that recruits come in contact with and if on-duty Medical staff are wearing a range of uniforms covering 200 years, it can be confusing. The same is true of accessories such as gold chains, blingy rings; those shouldn't be worn when on-duty. First Contact - Nemesis uniform sets (now with skirts for the ladies) are available for free on the first floor.
- If you are interested in learning to pilot a shuttle, please contact Dr. Kiernan Braveheart about AAC training.
- Dr. Pax Forwzy is working on a plan to increase opportunities for role play (rp) in Medical and within GFC. Stay tuned for further details.
Our next meeting is Saturday, May 30, at 4:30pm.
Michiko Akina
LT(jg)/ACMO
Monday, May 18, 2009
Voicing Klingon
Today's Wall Street Journal has an article today in its Careers section about the man who invented Klingon and how the opportunity came his way. Enjoy!Full name: Marc Okrand Age: 60
Hometown: Los Angeles
Current position: Director of live captioning, National Captioning Institute First job: Radio DJ Favorite job: This one
Education: B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Hometown: Los Angeles
Current position: Director of live captioning, National Captioning Institute First job: Radio DJ Favorite job: This one
Education: B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Years in the industry: 30
How I got to here in 10 words or less: I kept an open mind.
How I got to here in 10 words or less: I kept an open mind.
After earning a Ph.D. in linguistics, Marc Okrand took a job at the National Captioning Institute, where he worked on the first closed-captioning system for hearing impaired television viewers. While coordinating closed captioning for the Oscars award show in 1982, Mr. Okrand met the producer for the movie "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." That led to a twist in his career: He was hired to create the Vulcan language and, later, the Klingon dialogue. Mr. Okrand has since expanded his work on Star Trek languages into several books, including The Klingon Dictionary.
Q. Before joining the National Captioning Institute, what did you do?
A. I taught linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara before taking a post doctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., in 1978. I researched a couple of California Indian languages that haven't been spoken in a long time. The last native speaker had died long ago so relearning it was mostly based on documents.
A. I taught linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara before taking a post doctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., in 1978. I researched a couple of California Indian languages that haven't been spoken in a long time. The last native speaker had died long ago so relearning it was mostly based on documents.
Q. How did you figure out how to properly pronounce the words?
A. A guy from the Smithsonian had actually spoken with the last remaining speaker of the language. He was a trained phonetician so he took very good notes. There were some Edison cylinders (used to create early recordings) of some songs in a related language.
A. A guy from the Smithsonian had actually spoken with the last remaining speaker of the language. He was a trained phonetician so he took very good notes. There were some Edison cylinders (used to create early recordings) of some songs in a related language.
Q. What did you do after your fellowship?
A. I applied for a few academic jobs but none of them panned out. Shortly afterward, I met somebody at a party who worked at what was then the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He worked with the deaf and suggested I work with closed captioning. Back then, it was a new technology.
A. I applied for a few academic jobs but none of them panned out. Shortly afterward, I met somebody at a party who worked at what was then the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He worked with the deaf and suggested I work with closed captioning. Back then, it was a new technology.
Q. What made you decide to pursue the job?
A. It was language related and broadcasting, which is what I was doing before. It seemed like a fit. A few interviews later, they hired me as supervisor of captioning at the National Captioning Institute. This was back in 1979.
A. It was language related and broadcasting, which is what I was doing before. It seemed like a fit. A few interviews later, they hired me as supervisor of captioning at the National Captioning Institute. This was back in 1979.
Q. What did you do then and how has it changed?
A. I was in charge of a number of television programs and movies. Once we got the videotape, I'd oversee transcribing the audio and changing the grammar and vocabulary. Eventually, I was in charge of captioning for live broadcasts. We used to use court reporter steno machines. We (now) use speech recognition and (work live).
A. I was in charge of a number of television programs and movies. Once we got the videotape, I'd oversee transcribing the audio and changing the grammar and vocabulary. Eventually, I was in charge of captioning for live broadcasts. We used to use court reporter steno machines. We (now) use speech recognition and (work live).
Q. How did you go from captioning to the Klingon language?
A. We did the Oscars for the first time in 1982. Much of it is scripted and can be done beforehand, but we had to jump in with the court reporters right after the presenters said, "and the winner is…" In Los Angeles, I visited a friend who worked at Paramount. Her boss was the producer of the second Star Trek movie. They were planning on hiring a linguist from UCLA to create some lines of Vulcan for Leonard Nimoy and Kirstie Alley. There was a mix up and I ended up getting the job.
A. We did the Oscars for the first time in 1982. Much of it is scripted and can be done beforehand, but we had to jump in with the court reporters right after the presenters said, "and the winner is…" In Los Angeles, I visited a friend who worked at Paramount. Her boss was the producer of the second Star Trek movie. They were planning on hiring a linguist from UCLA to create some lines of Vulcan for Leonard Nimoy and Kirstie Alley. There was a mix up and I ended up getting the job.
Q. So you created the Vulcan language?
A. They had already shot the scene in English. Someone later decided it was better if they spoke Vulcan. I had to create gobbledygook that matched their lips so it could be dubbed in.
A. They had already shot the scene in English. Someone later decided it was better if they spoke Vulcan. I had to create gobbledygook that matched their lips so it could be dubbed in.
Q. And that led you to create the more complex Klingon language?
A. I got to work from scratch for the third film, which included creating grammar and vocabulary (for the Klingon language). I did base some sounds off the lines spoken in the first film. But I came up with some basic rules and stuck to them.
A. I got to work from scratch for the third film, which included creating grammar and vocabulary (for the Klingon language). I did base some sounds off the lines spoken in the first film. But I came up with some basic rules and stuck to them.
Q. Did you draw from real languages?
A. You can't help being influenced by what you know, which (for me) was a bit of Spanish, French and American Indian. I also knew Southeast Asian languages. I'd be writing something and suddenly realize that it sounded like Navajo. I'd stop and make sure the next thing sounded as different as it could possibly be. I expanded the language for the fifth and sixth film and wrote a book called The Klingon Dictionary in 1992.
A. You can't help being influenced by what you know, which (for me) was a bit of Spanish, French and American Indian. I also knew Southeast Asian languages. I'd be writing something and suddenly realize that it sounded like Navajo. I'd stop and make sure the next thing sounded as different as it could possibly be. I expanded the language for the fifth and sixth film and wrote a book called The Klingon Dictionary in 1992.
Q. How do you feel about creating a new language?
A. I think it's great. I hear it's taught in some linguistics classes and I've seen chapters incorporated into linguistics textbooks. Of course, I have to give credit to James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty. He invented the first six lines from the first film.
A. I think it's great. I hear it's taught in some linguistics classes and I've seen chapters incorporated into linguistics textbooks. Of course, I have to give credit to James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty. He invented the first six lines from the first film.
Friday, May 15, 2009
New uniform set is available
A new 2373-2390 "First Contact" style uniform kit is out in the Medical Center, and this set (finally) has a couple of skirt options. Grab a copy if you are interested!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Favorite Links of the GFC Medical Staff
You may use this post to list any Star Trek or medical related site that you would like to share with the Medical staff. Site name and address are needed, and if you'd like, add a comment or description about it. They will be transferred to the category favorite links, found just below contributors on the right-hand side of the blog.
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